Bybit Review

What Is Bybit?

Bybit is a Singapore-based trading platform for cryptocurrency derivatives - the contracts that give you the right to buy or sell crypto assets at certain prices in the future.

Before we continue though, there’s some things we need to explain.

Bybit is not FCA approved. It is shutting down operation on UK territory. Also, it does share your data with third parties inside and outside EEA. It’s not only for legal reasons - it will be shared with their partners for promotions and services.

So, how does it work?

You can: 

• open long positions (bet that the price of a coin goes up)
• open short positions (bet that the price goes down) 
• leverage up (use borrowed funds to trade assets more than your wallet balances) without owning the underlying asset.

Trading derivatives can help you capitalize on crypto prices’ volatile nature with less risk and more convenience. 

Ben Zhou co-founded Bybit in 2018 after realizing the bright potential of crypto trading two years earlier. Before serving as the exchange’s CEO, Zhou worked as forex brokerage firm XM’s general manager for Greater China.

To develop the platform, he formed his A-team of investment banking and fintech professionals who used to work for Alibaba, Tencent, Morgan Staley, and other established brands. Today, the Bybit exchange also consists of blockchain experts and veteran forex talents.

If you want to secure a foothold in the crypto market and own your first coin, however, Bybit is not the right platform for you. Instead, use a centralized exchange like Coinbase to buy and sell crypto holdings. Make no mistake; you could grow your wealth by buying BTC or other coins over time. But trading is where you can make big money.

The Bybit platform is used by more than 1.2 million traders It’s very simple to understand, thus the influx of people. With some practice, you can learn the ropes quickly and begin making a profit.

But is it better than other trading platforms like Binance? Judging by the 71 Bybit reviews on Trustpilot, this exchange is average. Nearly half of the reviewers have declared it bad. But considering Bybit’s 2.8 Trustpilot star rating is based on just a  few testimonials, it may not be a solid reflection of its actual functionality and integrity. So, don’t make up your mind until you finish this Bybit review.

Bybit Leverage and Trading

The types of contracts you can buy on the platform are: 

• inverse perpetual contracts (BTC-, ETH-, EOS-, or XRP-margined) 
• USDT perpetual contracts (USDT (Tether)-margined) 
• inverse futures contracts (BTC-margined).

Let’s elaborate:

Perpetual and Futures Trading

Perpetual trading happens when you enter a position without exchanging the underlying asset on the spot. You can hold the position for as long as you want, provided that your margin remains sufficient. 

Futures trading happens when you agree to buy or sell a contract’s underlying asset at an agreed price at a specified later date.

The main differences between these two are settlement time and expiration date.

With no expiration, perpetual trading gives you more flexibility to predict the settlement price and close the contract. On the other hand, Futures trading locks you in a future price and settles upon expiration based on the spot price.

Inverse Contracts

Inverse contracts use the US dollar to confirm the traded quantity and use BTC, ETH, EOS, or XRP to determine margin, profit, and loss. The point of this Bybit quantity setting option is to avoid the need to manually enter Sats (short for Satoshis, the smallest unit of BTC).

USDT perpetual contracts are quoted and settled in USDT. This asset is an advantage because it’s a USD-pegged stable coin. It means that Tether Limited (the company that issues it) supposedly backs its tokens in circulation with an equal amount of US dollars in reserves. Its value has a solid basis and isn’t subject to speculation as much as other crypto-assets.

USDT isn’t without controversy, but it remains attractive due to its proven immunity to wide price fluctuations. It was used in 57% of all BTC trading by February 2021. No wonder why many Bybit reviews recommend USDT for beginners.

Another unique thing about USDT perpetual contracts is that you can use them for trading any of the following cryptocurrencies:

• BTC
• ETH
• BCH (Bitcoin Cash)
• LINK (Chainlink)
• LTC (Litecoin)
• XTZ (Tezos)
• ADA (Cardano)
• DOT (Polkadot)
• UNI (Uniswap)
  

Leverage

On the Bybit platform, you can also use leverage. In essence, it enables you to use borrowed capital to trade more than the actual value of the assets you have in your cryptocurrency wallet.

Leverage trading can boost your gains if the crypto price goes towards your predictions. Conversely, it can compound your losses if the price moves the other way. With strategy and luck, it can render every Bybit trade you make potentially lucrative. For instance, buying 100 contracts to long BTC with 3x leverage means that you would triple your profit if its price goes up.

Your chosen leverage can also dictate your initial margin to help keep you honest. Here’s the formula Bybit uses to calculate the amount of collateral you need to open a position: contract quantity / (order price x leverage).

According to the risk limit table of the Bybit exchange, the maximum leverage goes down as the contract value you hold goes up. Your initial margin requirement changes in a fixed increment at every specific contract value increase or decrease.

Margins

When it comes to the maintenance margin, it represents the least amount of collateral you need to have to continue holding a position. Your maintenance margin base rate follows the movement of your initial margin base rate.

Bybit tools like take-profit, stop-loss, and hedging (available in USDT perpetual contracts only) aren’t the only means to control your gains and losses and manage risk exposure. You can also use isolated margin and cross margin.

In isolated margin mode, the collateral you use in a position isn’t linked to the rest of your account balance. As a result, the margin you place for an open position is the only one at risk of liquidation. 

In cross margin mode, 100% of the corresponding trading pair coin’s equity is at stake to reduce liquidation chances. But if the available balance dips below your maintenance margin, you will lose it all.

With the isolated margin system, you can set the leverage up to 100x. You can’t manually adjust it with the cross margin system; Bybit calculates the effective leverage by looking at your position’s value and the maximum amount you can lose.

Moreover, you don’t have to trust one Bybit price to protect yourself from market manipulation. The company’s dual-price mechanism is composed of Mark Price (derived by combining the global spot price index and the decaying funding basis rate) and Last Traded Price (the current market price on Bybit).

This helps create a fairer trading environment since it can minimise price discrepancy and safeguard platform users from malicious liquidation.

Bybit Type of Orders

On Bybit, here are the different order types:

• Limit - Those enable you to set the number of contracts, order price, and leverage. Their execution happens when the Last Traded Price reaches the preset order price.
• Market - They also let you set the number of contracts and order price. But the best available price on the order book determines the executed price. You can use them to enter or exit the market immediately and react to the fluid price environment quickly.
• Conditional - Those are advanced orders that automatically submit once your specified trigger price meets the Last Traded Price. A conditional market order is filled right away, whereas a conditional limit one  waits in the order book while its execution is pending.

Bybit Deposit and Withdrawals

Bybit supports five cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, EOS, XRP, and USDT. By default, you’ll have a wallet for each asset, but Bybit calculates your overall equity in BTC.

If you have any of said coins store elsewhere, you can move them to your Bybit wallets and start trading. If you would rather use Bybit to buy crypto, you can use the Fiat Gateway.

The Fiat Gateway supports BTC, ETH, and USDT and 45 fiat currencies, including the US dollar, the Australian dollar, the Euro, and the British pound. Since Bybit doesn’t provide a USD wallet yet, the above are the only deposit options.

Based on your chosen fiat currency, the platform can give you multiple payment options facilitated by different third-party service providers. This way, you can pick the vendor that can top up your wallets with the most crypto for the lowest fees within the shortest period.

You can also use the Assets Exchange (formerly Coin Swap), a tool for converting a Bybit-supported crypto coin into another.

While there’s no minimum Bybit deposit requirement, there’s a purchase limit per order to consider. For US dollars, it’s $20–$15,000.

For withdrawals, you need to enable two-factor authentication. Plus, there’s a Bybit withdrawal fee.

Bybit Fees

As follows are the types of fees you can encounter as a Bybit user.

Funding Fee

Bybit uses its funding mechanism to keep the perpetual contract trading price as close to the spot price as possible. Who pays the funding fee depends on the interplay between the two prices.

If the trading price is greater than the spot price, long position holders have to pay the funding fee to short position holders. This could entice more traders to open short positions, which would drive down the trading price. But if it dips below the spot price, the short position holders pay the fee instead.

The funding fee is paid every eight hours on the platform. The settlement times are 00:00 (UTC), 08:00 (UTC), and 16:00 (UTC). The spread between intervals determines the funding rate for upcoming settlement time.

Trading Fees

Bybit uses a maker-taker model. But instead of charging makers Bybit trading fees, the company issues maker rebates.

If you’re a market maker, you’ll provide liquidity by increasing the market depth with your order Bybit will reward you with a rebate. If you’re a market taker, you’ll take some liquidity off the book. You’ll have to shoulder a Bybit trading fee for that.

The actual trading fees and maker rebates are the same for BTC USD, ETH USD, EOS USD, and XRP USD inverse perpetual contracts and BTCUSDT USDT perpetual contracts. The maker rebate sits at -0.25%, and the taker fee is 0.075%.

All of the rebates and taker fees will affect your account balance but not your initial margin.

Asset Exchange Fee

Irrespective of the amount of crypto coin, the Bybit exchange fees remain constant at a flat rate of 0.1%.

Asset Recovery Handling Fee

Bybit can help you retrieve a wrongly deposited unsupported cryptocurrency.

If feasible, the company may be able to return your coin to its originating cryptocurrency wallet or convert it into USDT and credit it to your account. Either way, you’ll incur a one-time handling fee of 20 USDT for every successful case of asset recovery.

Like other Bybit fees, the handling one is fixed. But the company will only help you retrieve your coin if it’s worth at least 20 USDT.

Withdrawal Fee

The company pays a standard miner fee, so its withdrawal fee is fixed no matter how much funds you take out of your cryptocurrency wallet.

Check out the table below for the minimum withdrawal amount and the corresponding fee per coin.

Although fixed, Bybit transfer fees are a bit higher than those of other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Bybit Insurance Fund

The Bybit Mutual Insurance is a risk management tool for BTCUSD perpetual contracts. It can help you maximize your profit potential in an uptrend or offset your losses without exiting your long and short.

Mutual Insurance’s cost is made up of its premium and insurance fee (insurance amount x 0.05%). Bybit primarily uses the Black Scholes model of options pricing, which factors in:

• Insurance amount
• Index price volatility
• Insured price of long or short position
• Maximum payoff
• Insurance duration
• Mutual Insurance Fund balance
  

Three scenarios can trigger settlement (in BTC).

1. The Mutual Insurance expires after 2, 12, or 48 hours.
2. You manually settle at any point during the insured period.
3. Your position gets partially or fully liquidated.

When you buy one or multiple Mutual Insurance coverages, you’ll have to transfer BTC funds from your trading account to your insurance account. You can make a purchase when you have an open BTCUSD perpetual contract position.

In isolated margin mode, Bybit will automatically deduct from your trading account when your insurance account runs out of sufficient funds to cover the premium.

Ease of Use and Interface

To casual visitors, Bybit’s trading page can be intimidating. But to someone with a trained eye, it’s arguably one of the most convenient crypto derivatives trading platforms to use.

If you’re not a seasoned user, you can understand how everything works as long as you take the time to grasp the exchange’s fundamentals.

Once you’re ready to trade, you’ll appreciate the platform’s customizable modules. The dashboard’s layout is nicely organized, but you can move, resize, or maximize the modules at will.

The Bybit mobile application matches its web-based counterpart’s functionality. Its user interface is highly responsive and easy to navigate.  We especially loved the leverage slider t. Although you can enter a specific number manually, this tool renders leverage adjustment with ease.

If you’re not a native English speaker, you can translate the content into seven other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Russian. Multi-language support isn’t limited to the trading platform dashboard. You can also translate the content on Bybit Learn, the Bybit Blog, and the Help Center.

Bybit Referral / Affiliate Program

When writing this Bybit review, there were a few rewards available for first-time depositors of any of the assets the platform supports.

One of them is the “A Big Deal” coupon, which is worth $50. You can claim this Bybit welcome bonus after depositing more than or equal to 0.1 BTC, 3 ETH, 1,390 EOS, 11800 XRP, or 5000 USDT within 48 hours upon sign-up.

If you fail to deposit within that window, you can still get a $10 Bybit welcome bonus afterward as long as you meet any of the minimum deposit requirements. You’ll receive it in the corresponding deposit coin.

Also, you can claim an extra $5 Bybit bonus when you make a BTC deposit and another $5 voucher if you follow the company on social media.

Rewards aren’t exclusive to newcomers. There are many flash deals, giveaways, and raffles existing users can enjoy. So, be sure to check out the Rewards Hub and the Latest Promotions page to know which Bybit bonus is up for grabs on a given day.

With Bybit’s referral program, you can receive $10 for every new user you invite to sign up to the platform. Your qualified referees will also get a welcome bonus of $10.

To consider a referral successful, the new user you invited should:

• Create an account on Bybit with your referral code or link.
• Make a deposit.
• Execute at least one BTCUSD inverse perpetual or futures contract trade.

To start inviting your prospective referees, simply ask them to register on the platform using your referral code or link. You can use a QR code to send your invitations.

So, where can you use your bonuses? They’re good as a margin, to cover trading losses, and to offset fees. You can’t withdraw them, but you can take out the profits derived from trading with them.

If you want greater and more sustainable rewards for bringing new traders to the Bybit exchange, participate in its affiliate program. It lets you enjoy lifetime commissions on every new active user that signs up thanks to you.

Bybit uses a two-pronged commission model. You can rake in 30% of the platform’s profits from your referral’s trades and 10% of what your sub-affiliates make. A sub-affiliate is a referral that turns into a Bybit Affiliate. 

The network now has more than 11,000 content creators and influencers from 160 countries who receive recurring revenue share per new client monthly. Bybit claims that its rate is over 100% higher than industry standards and that it has already paid at least BTC 5,600 in commissions.

To be an affiliate, you just have to go through Bybit’s simple application process. Once you get the green light, the company will give you a unique referral link to share with your audience through social media, ads, articles, blogs, etc.

Bybit Mobile App

You can download a Bybit mobile application for iOS or Android. The latter has been downloaded over 100,000 on Google Play. It has 2,450 Bybit reviews with an average rating of 4.3 stars since its rollout date of October 31, 2019.

After downloading the Android app and playing with it for a couple of days, it became clear to us why most traders approve of it.

The app can do everything its browser-based counterpart can. It has separate screens for: 

• contracts
• the price graph 
• order book 
• recent trades information 
• the order zone 
• notifications 
• wallets.

Likewise, Bybit mobile app provides multiple strategy alert options. You can activate its customizable widget and get notifications when the Last Traded Price trends higher or lower than your chosen alert rate.

Moreover, you can set up notifications for spikes and plunges when the prices of your chosen trading pairs change by more than a certain percentage within five minutes. You can do the same with open interest changes.

Lastly, the Bybit app lets you create a reminder about the predicted funding rate 30 minutes before funding settlement for your chosen trading pairs.

Bybit Security

The CEO has gone on record claiming that most cryptocurrency exchanges were doomed to fall prey to hackers because they’re centralized. So, is Bybit different from the rest from a cybersecurity perspective?

Yes, and it takes cybersecurity more seriously than the average crypto trading platform. Let’s take a look at what the company does to protect your investments.

Multi-Signature Cold Wallet Storage

Bybit has developed a hardware wallet system to collectively store its users’ funds in cold storage and help keep them safe from malicious threat actors.

Unlike the other exchanges that use hot wallets (crypto wallets accessible online), Bybit assigns cold deposit addresses to traders. It completes asset consolidation and withdrawals with offline signatures.

In other words, withdrawal requests on the Bybit platform are subject to manual review thrice a day. Although you won’t receive your funds instantaneously, this strict process helps keep hackers at bay. Besides, you can still withdraw funds from your account once every eight hours.

Zero-Trust Architecture

Bybit has a zero-trust architecture and uses an internal system to apply software lifecycle management.

The company has hired esteemed cybersecurity consultants to carry out penetration testing. It also observes segregation of duties and works with a reputable third-party security auditor.

Every Bybit employee must go through meticulous background checks and mandatory security training and assessment to prevent inside jobs.

Partnership With White Hat Hackers

To head off data breaches, Bybit engages with white hat hackers to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities early. The company rewards loophole discoverers through its bounty programs.

Two-Factor Authentication

For enhanced account security, Bybit supports two-factor authentication.

You only need to pass one authentication level to register on the platform, log into your account, or use Bybit to buy crypto assets for trading. But the system will require you to set a combination of email or SMS authentication and Google Authentication if you need to:

• Reset your password
• Change your security settings
• Withdraw your money

Google Authentication is also a must during API management verification.

Extra Layers of Authentication

The Bybit mobile application has unique security features too. You can enable pattern lock and activate fingerprint recognition for enhanced security.

Keep in mind, however, that Bybit will share your data with third parties, both for legal and promotional purposes.

Bybit Customer Support

Bybit can have a steep learning curve, but you can get help in various ways.

Email and Chat Support

The company offers email and 24/7 live chat support. We found both channels convenient since we occasionally encountered some challenges during the test for this Bybit review. As we weren’t previously familiar with the platform, this came as no surprise. 

There’s a chatroom on Bybit’s trading page. Here, fellow users are ready to answer your questions. But if you’d like to have a one-on-one conversation, you can chat with a customer care agent through the Bybit iOS app or its Android counterpart.

The company’s support team will get back to you ASAP. You may not get a reply right away when there’s a high volume of support requests. But we can attest that you won’t have to wait too long.

You have to stay on the chat screen until an agent becomes available. Otherwise, you’ll have to go to the back of the line. But if you don’t have the time your concern isn’t urgent, you can submit a support ticket instead.

Social Media

Bybit has at least eight social media accounts. You can engage with the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Medium. You can also tweet Ben Zhou directly and get a response.

Knowledge Bases

If you’d like to do your research, you can pull up the trading page’s support window instead. It serves as a search engine for the company’s help center.

One of Bybit’s many knowledge bases provides a dedicated space for bite-sized articles answering the frequently asked questions the company receives from users. The help center also has FAQ sections for general Bybit trade topics and common subjects like API.

If you are a beginner visit Bybit Learn. It contains literature about tons of crypto topics such as blockchain, decentralized finance, and altcoins. The built-in search engine lets you enter keywords to find the right information quickly. To familiarize yourself with the most popular crypto terms and slang, you can consult its glossary.

To improve your product knowledge, you can check out the Contract Info tab on the trading page. It’s the place to go to learn about how every contract works. If you want to stay up to date with the latest crypto news, check out the Bybit Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts with Bybit, you can submit feedback. On its User Feedback page, it displays all of the recommendations it has adopted chronologically. Many Bybit reviews show that the company actually listens to its users and resolves issues rather quickly.

API Documentation and Community Support

If you’re a software developer, you’ll be able to access Bybit’s official API resources. The company also hosts multiple social groups where you can brainstorm with other technologists and report issues. It has a Telegram API chat group and an IT support email address.

Authenticity Checker

The Authenticity Check can help you verify whether the information you heard about the company, its platform, or products is correct. It’s one of those Bybit tools designed to protect you from illegal practices.

Bybit vs BitMEX

Of course, there are competitors in this space. BitMEX is one of them, and the two platforms are alike in many departments.

Bybit and BitMEX support margin trading with up to 100x leverage and offer perpetual and futures contracts. The BitMEX and Bybit trading fees, as well as maker rebates, are identical. Both crypto derivatives trading platforms also use multi-signature cold wallets for maximum protection from hackers.

BitMEX’s decision to settle all profits and losses in BTC even when buying non-BTC contracts and not charge withdrawal fees makes it slightly different from Bybit in this area. For this reason, Bybit offers more flexibility, especially if you intend to trade with ETH, EOS, XRP, or USDT.

Although Bybit transfer fees are fixed, paying 0.0005 BTC to move your funds out of your BTC wallet can add up. Ultimately, it will hurt your pocket if you like to keep your assets safe in self-custody.

User identification verification is where these two diverge fundamentally. BitMEX strictly implements a KYC procedure (Know Your Customer or Know Your Client) and takes pride in being of the first crypto platforms ever to do so. On the other hand, Bybit cares more about the IP address than its users’ actual identity.

When looking at user restrictions, both companies blacklist users according to where they’re physically located. Bybit and BitMEX ban users from the USA, Quebec, Cuba, Crimea, Sevastopol, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Sudan. Bybit also doesn’t entertain people based in Singapore, the UK, and mainland China. BitMEX observes that same treatment for traders in Hong Kong, Seychelles, and Bermuda.

Bybit vs Binance

Binance has a much bigger and more complex ecosystem than Bybit’s.

On Binance, you can buy, store, use, and trade crypto assets. It helps you shop crypto at spot prices and brokers margin trading. You can also trade leveraged tokens and futures contracts, buy and sell assets directly to other users, and invest in a liquid swap on this platform.

Also, Binance has an infrastructure impact fund to finance blockchain projects and serves as an initial exchange offering springboard.

On Bybit, you can only do margin trading. But since it’s still a young platform, it might follow the footsteps of Binance in terms of functionality.

When it comes to deposits and withdrawals, the two platforms share some similarities. Neither of them imposes any deposit limit but expects a purchase order minimum when buying crypto assets.

Binance matches the Bybit withdrawal fee for BTC at 0.0005%, but the latter charges twice as much on ETH withdrawals (0.005% vs. 0.01%). The Bybit trading fee is 0.075% across the board. On Binance, you can get this rate only when you use BNB. Otherwise, expect to part ways with 0.1% per trade.

Moreover, Binance can facilitate the purchase of 23 cryptocurrencies, including its native asset Binance Coin. In comparison, Bybit provides you wallets for five assets, and you can only buy three of them with fiat money. Also, it  doesn’t have its own crypto coin.

Binance restricts traders from up to 48 jurisdictions, whereas Bybit bans users from 12 places. So choosing between the platforms may depend on where you are based.

If you have the green light to use Binance or Bybit, expect solid security features, multiple deposit sources, reliable customer support, and self-help options from either platform.

Bybit Review - Verdict

Bybit is an attractive crypto derivatives exchange. You may have heard a lot of buzz about it, as many content creators gravitate toward its generous affiliate program. But don’t worry; it’s not all hypе.

Bybit many have some deficiencies, and its limited fiat-to-crypto conversion capability is an excellent example. But it also has many good things going for it, like its multi-signature cold wallet storage.You’ll be able to trade with leverage and manage your positions with its user-friendly interface.

It has lots of room to grow, though. And it could start by implementing a stringent KYC policy to welcome Bybit USA traders. More importantly, having a strict ID verification process in place can enhance its legitimacy in regulators’ eyes.

But if you find the whole FCA issue and the fact that it shares your data off-putting, you’d be better off checking out other similar platforms.